A quick post with some photos from the last week. My new camera arrives tomorrow, so I’m stoked about being able to post better photos, particularly those taken in low light.
Last Wednesday evening a friend and I dined at Saskatoon, in the spot that housed the amazingly-fast-failure Atlanta location of Harry Bisset’s. The Atlanta location is a franchise, and I was interesting in trying their game, but I also had interest because the original Saskatoon in Greenville was the first > $10 dinner I ever paid for myself. I was a 16 year old lifeguard making $6.50 an hour, and my buddy and I thought we were big shots paying for a steak dinner.
The Saskatoon concept has long endured in Greenville, and I’m interested to see if the idea will be able to stick in a stiff Atlanta/Buckhead market, and an even tougher economy. All of our food was cooked excellently, exactly to the correct temperatures specified. Even the lamb lollipops pictured above were cooked perfectly to medium rare, and I think they are often overcooked at many restaurants, presumably due to their very small size.
We also tried the sausage sampler seen below, then the elk steak, and the game sampler entree, which featured duck, lamb, and quail. The sausage appetizer was very large, so I was glad to be sharing with another person. They were good, though I’d prefer they weren’t cut long ways and seared, as they were a bit dry. The entrees were solid too, making for an overall pleasant experience, though I wonder about the novelty factor. It was great to try elk loin, but when it comes to a steak, my heart still belongs the grain fed NY strip. I do recommend Saskatoon though, especially if you’d like to try well prepared game without getting your hands dirty with a large caliber rifle in Saskatchewan.
Disclaimer! This meal was complimentary, because I’m big time.
As part of my dinner on Friday night I made colcannon. I used the traditional cabbage, but added kale, shallot, and garlic. I would have used lacinato (dinosaur) kale, but Kroger didn’t have it.
I used Yukon Gold potatoes, with chevre, butter, and cream. Everything the body needs.
Of course, top it with some more goat cheese when serving.
When I had the leftovers at lunch I topped it with some fresh butter, which I made in my stand mixer. I tried to use the food processor method found in the local blog Whisk Away, but the buttermilk wouldn’t separate from the cream. I think my dough blade wasn’t wide enough for my mixer to effectively mix all of the cream.
The mashed potatoes were a warm up for my real lunch – the short rib special at Fox Brother BBQ. Seen below: brontosaurus BBQ.
Dude. I should have won a prize for finishing all of this.
Finally on Sunday I had to get rid of a lot of vegetables before another work road trip. I roasted potatoes, beets, celery, carrot, leeks, red pepper, and garlic in olive oil in a cast iron skillet for one hour, turning occasionally. Then I reduced the last of my stock from my Ad Hoc short ribs until it could almost coat a spoon. I then cut and seared the vegetables in a very hot skillet, plated, and poured the sauce over them. It was like fantastic beef stew, but without the beef. Also, the jus turned an awesome red wine color from the beets.
I drank the stock once the veggies were gone.
Since a change at work at the end of last year, I am now in Columbia, South Carolina three days a week, allowing me plenty of time to explore their food scene. Unfortunately I think Columbia has a long way to go, especially compared to Charleston and Greenville, which are both vastly superior in terms of cuisine and weather.
Of course, there are gems, my favorite being Terra just across the bridge from the Vista (downtown). I probably visit once a week. Chef Mike Davis is young, creative, and recently had the honor of cooking at the James Beard house. The menu has some mainstays, but the specials are often the way to go. On a recent visit they were trying out some bar snacks, including lobster “corn dogs”. This was fresh lobster, fried on a stick, with a tempura like texture. It was a little gooey from being undercooked, but showed potential and was a fun attempt, and was worth ordering at $7.
I often end up ordering the wood fired pizzas, as they are too hard to pass up at $10. The pizzas are super thin, very much like Sardinian flat bread, with great toppings. The duck confit and port soaked cherries is my personal favorite, though the carnitas is a close second.
The frisee lardon is also a common order of mine – rich chewy Benton’s bacon, mushrooms, and a poached egg soaked in jus. Sinful and delicious.
Last week I tried the veal hangar steak with risotto. Perfectly cooked veal, wonderful al dente risotto with little cubes of roasted butternut squash, and once again, a good value at $20.
I don’t have a picture of another dish I like, but Terra commonly offers a skate wing appetizer, which is three medium sized pieces of fried skate, with celery root mash, and hericot verts for $8.
On another trip, I ventured towards the east side of Columbia, near the military base, where the best ethnic food can be found. The ladies at Mai Thai near my office, who often day dream about how good the Korean and Chinese food is in Atlanta, sent me over to Pho Viet when I told them I was seeking pho.
Compared to my first pho mission in Columbia, this was stellar, but I’m slowly learning just how good we have it in Atlanta. The broth was decent, though the ribeye wasn’t thin enough, and the brisket was tough and too lean. The omission of Thai basil was also disappointing, I love that stuff.
Last week I decided to seek out tonkotsu ramen. I found it at Inakaya. This was edible, but my heart sank as I realized that this was no Haru Ichiban or Yakitori Jenbei. The broth was too salty and was too thin, and the pork was a major let down. Rather than the thin slice of fatty, falling apart pork, these were three little pieces of tough pork, maybe small slices of roast loin.
The adventure of finding great food in Columbia has been a lot of fun, and as mentioned, only reinforces how good the food is in Atlanta, particularly ethnic food. Terra can be slightly inconsistent in execution, but I think it’s the best food in Columbia, with prices which beat anywhere of comparable quality in Atlanta. They also has a wide wine selection with fair prices.
I’m sure there are other “finds” in Columbia, and my plan is to try them all.
This past weekend I visited Toscano & Sons after I tried to hit up a BBQ/burger trailer that sits next to a dingy convenient store on Marietta St, not far from Carver’s, but it was closed. Anyone ever been to that shack?
It had been a while since my last visit to T&S, and it’s always interesting to see if my opinion changes over the span of a year.
I was instantly drawn to the porchetta sandwich. For four bucks, it’s a great deal – the bread was still soft, with a touch of crunch from being momentarily pressed, and the salty, fatty meat hit the spot. I spent roughly $13, purchasing the sandwich, chips, a soda, a great loaf of ciabatta, and some bucatini.
The sandwich wasn’t exactly what I had envisioned though. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed my lunch, and it was a heck of a deal, but all throughout 2009, I couldn’t go even a week without hearing about the sandwich at Porchetta in NYC. So when I saw the word on the Toscano menu, I had visions of grandeur. Grandeur being the photo below.
photo above via Serious Eats NY
FYI – flights to NYC in April are $250 as of this morning, or 32,000 Delta SkyMiles as of 7:30AM today.
I had a fantastic porchetta roast at the Antinori property at the top of Atlas Peak in Napa Valley this past summer. It’s pretty much seasoned pork roast, wrapped in a huge slab of pork belly. Could you imagine layered cross section slices of that sucker, piled high on a sandwich?
